News

Nov 23, 2023

Mantras, tattoos and art: Inside Tibetan Healing Day

After a successful event at the Sonoma Community Center last month, Lama Tashi

After a successful event at the Sonoma Community Center last month, Lama Tashi Norbu, a Tibetan Buddhist Monk will head to Vintage House to offer a healing ceremony and custom tattoo designs on Nov. 30.

"Out motto is ‘Explore, Connect, Belong,’ and this first perfectly into that," Katie DeJongh, program manager at Vintage House, said. "His whole tradition is around love and kindness and healing and world peace."

According to Norbu, a Tibetan Healing Day is a ceremony that allows him to receives positive energy and redistributes it to the people in attendance.

"As a Buddhist, I will visualize 1,000 Buddhas," Norbu said. "I will receive the energies and try to transmit them to the people of Sonoma."

DeJongh fist discovered Norbu at the Community Center's healing day. She originally went with the intention of staying for an hour or so, and ended up participating in the entire weekend because she was so drawn to the Monk and his paintings. She then invited him to have another healing day at Vintage House.

Norbu is a skilled painter, and the chief executive director at the Museum of Contemporary Tibetan Art in the town of Emmen in the Netherlands. During the ceremonies, he does a live painting of Buddah, and its variation depends on the energy he picks up from the environment he's in.

For Sonoma, he visualizes the earth element as he paints.

According to DeJongh, musicians accompany Norbu as he paints, which creates a performance-like atmosphere. Norbu chants as the people play their instruments, which are different every time. He invites local musicians and anyone else who wants to play, so a unique sound is produced at each event.

Norbu was ordained as a Buddhist practitioner at a Tibetan School in India when he was 18 before leaving to study art and Monastic environments working as a painter at the Dalai Lama's private residence. When he was 25, he went to pursue art at the Saint Lucas Academy of Visual Arts in Ghent in Belgium, where he now holds citizenship.

His artist style marries the traditional Tibetan Buddhism and modern elements to create a unique visualize depiction of Buddha that represents the cultures of the east and west together.

"I always combine western culture to mine so I can reach more people," Norbu said. "I’m very honored to have this time with the western people."

He is now a dedicated Tibetan Buddhist Monk, and ambassador of the Dalai Lama, who uniquely connects with people through his artistic talents in order to elevate their consciousness.

The healing day will begin with a opening ceremony that practices a ritual of good health and the receiving of a mantra. The live painting will follow, and then there will be a meet and great before breaking for one hour to view the the rest of Norbu's art that will be on display at Vintage House.

At 5 p.m., the event will reconvene with a ceremony for world peace and good health, followed by a Dharma talk by Lama Tashi. In the closing ceremony, Norbu will try to empower the attendees to take the energy that they have collected from the healing day out with them into their lives.

At some point in the event, Norbu will give out knotted red strings that have had prayers transmitted into them. He will teach the audience how to create another knot containing a prayer or good intention, and then the recipients are meant to carry them around for good energy.

"I don't have the ultimate power to continue that for this person," Norbu said.

His goal is to give people the power to access that energy within themselves, so that long after the ceremonies and rituals, they can still carry it.

According to Norbu, personal mantras can be an effective tool in regulating your energy, and he will be doing tattoos for people who want to make their mantras a permanent fixture on their body. For an added expense, he will design Tibetan sacred tattoos and ink them on guests at Rosa Grande Tattoo, a local woman-owned parlor on Sonoma Highway.

There are two types of sacred tattoos. The standard design includes one's personal Buddhist symbol and its mantra, which spans 6-10 inches. Or guests can consider a larger version that also includes a personal icon. These designs should be viewable to remind the receiver of the tattoo of their practice. All Tibetan sacred tattoos are placed above the waist of the body in order to keep them away from impurities.

The Tibetan Healing Day will take pace on Wednesday, Nov. 30, from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. Participants can come and go as they please, staying for the whole day is not required. All activities and ceremonies throughout the day are family friendly and meant for all ages.

Vintage House asks that interested individuals register for the event by visiting its website vintagehouse.org, and clicking the event on the classes and events page. event organizers can also be reached by calling 707-996-0311 or emailing [email protected].

Tibetan Healing Day

Location: Vintage House, 264 First St. E. Sonoma.

Date: Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2—7 p.m.

Cost: Free.

Vintage House will be displaying Lama Tashi's paintings from Monday, Nov. 27, through Sunday, Dec. 4. The public is welcome to come view the artwork from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Tibetan sacred tattoos

Location: Rosa Grande Tattoo, 18506 Highway 12

Dates: Thursday, Dec. 1, and Monday, Dec. 5 through Friday, Dec. 9. Appointments will take two—three hours.

Cost: $620 for the standard tattoo and $820 for the full.

Interested individuals can contact Lama Tashi Norbu at 415-740-8513 or [email protected] for tattoo questions and inquiries. Appointment can be booked at calendly.com/lamatashinorbu/tattoo-appointments-in-sonoma.

Contact the reporter Rebecca Wolff at [email protected].